Quote Originally Posted by Zane View Post
I am in favor of a Final Fantasy XIII esque jumping system.

Spending all of 20 minutes in La Noscea will prove why free jumping is a bad idea the way the game is currently designed. To add free jumping, they would also have to take down the invisible walls scattered throughout the world, add in interactions with water, and modify existing or add new geography to the original areas... all for the sake of being able to jump freely. Many areas were purposefully designed for the exclusion of jumping. There are a few small ledges I can think of off the top of my head that lead to no where. In fact, I dare say those large trackless expanses in the space between maps aren't fully modeled and would just lead to a buggy experience. That, or jumping up against the various invisible walls, and inability to jump off of cliffs to our character's ultimate demise will ruin immersion.

Adding in the Final Fantasy XIII jump feature, or something similar will fix the main complaint people have for the inclusion of a jump feature: The ability to navigate unnecessarily difficult terrain. All while keeping the reason people don't want a jump feature (Character immersion, lack of 'silliness?'). At the end of the day, this isn't a very important aspect of the game and devoting large swaths of time on this feature will ultimately hurt the game. The development team needs to find a simple answer for making our time in Eorzea more pleasant while allowing time for more pressing issues.
What? - and running/walking up against invisble walls is any less immersive? It's funny you talk about breaking immersion by adding a free-jump feature when it would only add to the immersion in most cases. At least free jumping would allow you to jump EVERY WHERE ELSE apart from those few areas where walls would be needed.